On The Record is proud to publish high quality student journalism. While our student editors recruit within UniSA’s journalism program for our regular team of journalists and sub-editors each year, we also have our pitches open for student submissions year-round.
Please note: On The Record does not produce paid or sponsored content. We are a journalism student publication that specialises in furthering the professional development of our student journalists.
UniSA’s Journalism and Professional Writing students who are in their second year or above in their program are encouraged to pitch their stories. Stories may also be considered from students who are taking a journalism sub-major, but all students must have successfully completed course COMM2076: Media Law and Ethics to pitch a story. If you meet these requirements, see below for how to pitch.
On The Record accepts news reports, feature articles, investigative and other kinds of in-depth stories, commentary/criticism, profiles and reviews from UniSA students. While we accept articles across the following categories, but are not limited to them:
- Arts and Culture
- Community and Local
- Diversity and Identity
- Environment and Climate Change
- First Nations
- Politics
- Food
- Lifestyle
- Regional and Rural
- Sport
- Technology
- Travel
We particularly encourage First Nations journalism students, and other, generally marginalised voices among UniSA journalism students, to pitch stories.
Please note: while we accept works of commentary or criticism that may assess the validity of a trope, television show, film, book or play, OTR does not accept reviews of specific episodes, films or live theatre via our student submissions. Our editorial team work very hard to stay on top of local and touring performances, liaising with theatre companies and performers, so all review content is produced in-house.
How to pitch your story to OTR
Pitching is a skill all journalism students should develop and be comfortable doing. We want to know what is special about your story and why you should be the one to write it for On The Record.
What to include:
- An engaging subject line that gets to the point
- Brief information about you: your name, what program you’re studying and how far along you are. Please confirm here that you have completed COMM 2076: Media Law and Ethics.
- Feel free to include your preferred writing style, genre or anything else you think we should know about you and your writing.
- Your topic and argument. We want to be clear on exactly what the topic of your article is and what you want to say about it. What insight do you have on the topic and what perspectives will you include?
- Suggested word count and timeframe. Let our editor know how long you expect the piece to be and how quickly you can turn it around (note: the timeliness or temporary nature of the story means the turnaround tends to be quicker)
- Since our writers are all students, if your story was submitted for assessment it is a requirement that you have received feedback from your tutor or relevant staff member and have adapted your story accordingly. Please let us know if this is the case.
All this in no more than 250 words.
If you’ve already written the story, you are able to attach it with your pitch, but it is not a requirement to have written the story before pitching. Do not send a story without having made sure it is consistent with the style guide used by On the Record.
Where do I pitch to?
You can send your pitches to On The Record at ontherecord.unisa@gmail.com
It is the appropriate convention to address your email to the current head editor, which you can find on the ‘About’ page. Once we have received your pitch, we’ll aim to respond within the week to let you know if we are able to take on your story. Remember, we’re all students too – many of whom have busy schedules of our own – so in peak periods we may take longer to get back to you. It’s okay to send a follow-up email if you have not heard back within 10 business days.
If your story is taken on, it will be sub-edited for content, structure and clarity by a member of our editorial team. This process allows us to deliver constructive feedback to you, the writer, and make sure all published content adheres to our style and production standards.
We know there are some excellent journalism coming out of UniSA, and we want to share it. If you’re interested in becoming more involved with On The Record, follow our social media channels and keep an eye out for our recruitment periods when we look for regular journalists and sub-editors to join our team.
